2000 - 2009

Timeline

2000
Congress passes legislation sponsored by U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), authorizing transfer of the Mukilteo Tank Farm from the U.S. Air Force to the Port of Everett. (The tanks, built in 1950 along the Mukilteo waterfront, had come down in 1997; deconstruction of the tank farm’s pier began later, in 2015.)

2001
The Port begins planning for a new 65-acre pedestrian-friendly mixed-use development, Port Gardner Wharf, in the central marina area. Plans eventually include condominiums, restaurants, shops and a 1,000-seat amphitheater. However, the project as envisioned dies when the developer, Maritime Trust Company, declares bankruptcy later in the decade.

2001
On September 11, terrorists use four airliners to launch attacks on the United States. Two planes hit the World Trade Center in New York, one hits the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and one crash-lands in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people lose their lives as a result. The U.S. government responds with changes to port and airline security that will greatly affect U.S. ports and their clients in the following years. As a result, the Port of Everett fences off its Seaport and creates only one cargo entry point. The incident also affects air travel and airplane makers, including the Port’s major client, The Boeing Company.

2001
The Port receives its first National Environmental Improvement Award for its work in transforming the Union Slough property in the Snohomish River Estuary into a successful intertidal estuarine marsh surrounded by a public walkway.

2002
From September 28 to October 8, the ILWU is locked out during contract negotiations with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA); the Bush Administration threatens to use the National Guard to run the ports. The lockout ends when the ILWU and the PMA come to an agreement on wages and hours.

2003
The Port acquires two surplus gantry cranes at no cost from the Port of Seattle; the cranes, to be painted a smoke blue color chosen by the community, will help the Port better handle containerized and oversized cargo.

2003
Boeing announces that its new midsize 7E7 passenger jet (later renamed the 787 Dreamliner) will be assembled in Everett.

2003
The Port dedicates the California Street Overcrossing at Hewitt Terminal, allowing train travel underneath and truck travel overhead. The project also includes a sidewalk to allow pedestrian access to the waterfront. The overcrossing is part of the Freight Action Strategy for Everett-Seattle-Tacoma (FAST Corridor) — a partnership combining local, state, federal, port and railroad resources to eliminate choke points in national freight transportation.

2004
The Port takes over operations and marketing for the entire Seaport. Since 1999, SSA Marine had managed these functions at the Port’s Pacific Terminal, its primary container and breakbulk facility. The move means that the Port of Everett will become an operational port, not just a landlord port. 

2005
The Port signs its first three shipping lines — Westwood Shipping Lines, Eastern Car Liner (ECL), and Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO) —  and puts container cranes in operation at Pacific Terminal. The Port becomes the third-largest container port in the state as it starts taking direct aerospace shipments from Japan.

2005 (through 2013)
The Port begins removing 25 buildings in the central marina area to make way for environmental cleanup and its planned $400 million Port Gardner Wharf mixed-use development.

2005
The Port builds Pigeon Creek Trail, creating public access to a beach and viewpoint where visitors can watch passing trains as well as the Port's terminal operations. Access is via Terminal Avenue.

2006
On October 13, President George W. Bush signs the SAFE Port Act into law, authored by Senator Patty Murray as a response to the September 11 attacks. The law, which allocates $400 million to implement its provisions, is aimed at securing the nation's ports and trade economy. Two of the main requirements are the implementation of a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program, and increased security standards for all cargo entering the United States. Senator Murray and U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (D-WA) visit the Port of Everett to celebrate the bill’s passage on October 5.

2006
The Port and the city of Hiroshima, Japan, sign a Cooperation Agreement. The historic shipping agreement pledges expanded liner service between the two cities, starting a direct flow of goods between Hiroshima and Everett. This cooperative agreement is stronger than a “sister port” agreement and is the first of its kind in North America. Hiroshima Prefecture and Everett are similar: each has a growing community that’s working to develop its seaports and promote its facilities in the international trading market.

2006
Lehigh Hanson, a subsidiary of Heidelberg Cement, signs a 20-year lease with the Port to store bulk cement at the former alumina dome for Pacific Northwest distribution.

2005-2008
The Port constructs the 900-foot-long Mount Baker Terminal, a rail/barge hub near Mukilteo, to support shipments for The Boeing Company. The terminal, financed with the help of a $15.5 million state grant, provides a seamless water-to-rail-to factory link for oversized aerospace parts. The pier services the Port of Everett’s regular aerospace cargo shipments between Japan and Everett. The new facility opens in May 2008.

2007
The opening of the Port’s 220-slip 12th Street Yacht Basin (now North Docks) creates another marina, maintaining Everett’s claim to the largest public marina on the West Coast (with a total of 2,300 slips).

2007
The Port breaks ground on Port Gardner Wharf, its long-planned combined residential and commercial development, in the central marina area.

2007
The Puget Sound Initiative was established by Washington Governor Christine Gregoire with the goal of restoring the health of Puget Sound by 2020. The Port of Everett at the time has more than 215 acres of waterfront property under cleanup action — more than any other agency in Washington state. The Port reports that it has five significant cleanup projects underway: the Everett Shipyard site; the West End and Ameron Hulbert sites, both in the central marina area; the Bay Wood site, and the Weyerhaeuser Mill A site.

2007
In September, the former alumina dome’s transition into storing cement is complete when the first ship from Lehigh Northwest Cement Company arrives. The dome can hold about 40,000 tons of the material.

2008
The commercial fishing fleet’s net sheds near 14th Street are dismantled as part of the Port’s project, that begun in 2005, to remove two dozen buildings in the central marina area, making way for cleanup and revitalization with a new mixed-use development.

2008
The Port clears the South Terminal of logs to prepare it for breakbulk cargo.

2008-2009
The Port, along with the rest of the country, begins to experience effects from the Great Recession. The Port Gardner Wharf developer files for federal bankruptcy, placing a hold on the Port’s mixed-use waterfront development; cement shipments to the newly repurposed storage dome are paused.

2008
The Port completes Phase I of the Craftsman District, including a new, environmentally progressive boatyard catering to the marina’s boating community.

2009
Everett Shipyard relocates from the Central Marina area to the Port of Everett Seaport; it’s later purchased by Vigor Marine, whose four-acre shipyard specializes in ship repair and refit. The relocation creates an opportunity to clean up the Everett Shipyard site (located between 14th and 15th streets on West Marine View Drive) and stimulate a mixed-use development on the waterfront (later to be transformed into Fisherman’s Harbor).

2009
The Port fights in federal bankruptcy court to regain control of central marina-area property from the Port Gardner Wharf developer.